Introduction to Pet Battles in World of Warcraft

Beginners

• Do the trainer quests. At your battle pet trainer in each faction’s main city, you can start a chain quest to beat pet trainers throughout the world. Not only do these quests offer more experience than regular battles, but they also reward you with pet related items that might help you level up faster or cosmetically alter your pets when outside of battle.
• Level more than 3 pets at a time. When you start out, you’re only offered the option to fight one pet at a time. As you level, you unlock the ability to use up to three in each battle. I suggest leveling 5-6 at a time. Your cooldown for healing and resurrecting them is 8 minutes, unless you’re near a stable master. When you level multiple pets, you can continue to do battles if one or two pets die before the 8 minute cooldown is up. It might also be smart to pick pets from different classifications.
• Capture one of every pet you encounter, especially if they’re rare quality. While leveling you’ll encounter a bunch of different pets. I felt it helped me level faster if I captured them and tryed using some of them. Some of these pets have nice abilities that you might never discover otherwise.
• Learn your pet’s strengths and weaknesses. Each class’s attacks have another class they are strong and weak against. The problem is that each pet doesn’t only have attacks from their class. So sometimes choosing the right attacks could mean all the difference in battle. I recommend finding a chart that shows all this information and print it out for easy access. The one I’m using doesn’t appear on that site anymore, but this (http://www.wowjuju.com/uploads/gallery/album_12/med_gallery_2_12_95535.jpg) one is similar.

Advanced

• Play around with different pet combinations. Some pets have abilities that deal more damage if an enemy is “burning” or “chilled”. Unfortunately, I haven’t come across any pets that will both chill an enemy and cause more damage when they’re chilled. They may be some, but I don’t know about them. That’s why playing around with pet combinations can come in handy. Also, there are abilities that will increase damage by any upcoming attacks. Try pairing those with the most powerful attacks from other pets.
• Take advantage of your pet’s passive class ability. Every pet class has a special passive ability. These abilities can help you map out a strategy for how to advanced in battle. For example, Mechanical units come back to life with 25% health once per battle, meaning you can wait until you’re one attack away from dying to cast a healing spell, knowing that you can benefit from that additional 25%.
• Level in a zone higher than you’re current pet’s level. This will grant you more experience and help your pets level faster. When leveling from 1-15, you only face one or two pets at a time. It’s very easy to kill two level 13 pets with three level 11s. Plus, when you capture pets at a higher level, you can throw the newly added ones into battle and they’ll already be the same level as the ones you’re currently using.

Expert

• Get some more pets!!! There are a ton of pets out there and it’s your job to find them. Searching through past expansion dungeons, reputations and vendors might reward some hidden gem pets that would otherwise go untouched.
• Let your pets die. When leveling multiple pets at once, it’s sometimes a good idea to let one pet die in battle. If you have a higher level pet, and you let it get killed,all  the experience will instead be granted to another pet. Meaning you can do all the grunt work with a more powerful pet, only to have a weaker pet jump in for the final attack and benefit as if it killed all the enemies.

Recommended Add-ons

• PetTracker (http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/pettracker) – displays, on your main map, the location of either any pets in the zone, any pet you don’t own a rare version of, or any pets missing from your collection. It’ll also display what your opponent’s abilities are, enabling you to switch to another pet when facing something that’s strong against your current pet.
• BattlePetCount (http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/battlepetcount) – displays how many of each pet you have, they’re level and quality, both in battle and before you start a fight.

Resources

• WarcraftPets.com (http://www.warcraftpets.com/) – They were the #1 source for companion pets even before pet battles were introduced. Now they’ve outdone themselves. They include information on every pet in game and they allow users to upload their collections to compare them to other members.
• Global Pet Battle League (http://gpbl.gkick.net/) – Want to try out your skills against other players in a bracket style tournament? Now you can!

Thanks for the guest post, Ryan!  The goblin students appreciate it! 

-Goldgrub

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Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

WoW Tailoring 1-600 Leveling  Guide

Here is the level 1-600 WoW Tailoring Leveling Guide that R9sid9nt9vil mentioned on The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast.  The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast is available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and at Eviscerated.net.   R9s worked up this guide on leveling your WoW Tailoring profession from 1-600 for MoP, but focused on items that are good for resale on the auction house or created items for disenchanting.  

Apprentice Tailoring: 1 – 75

1 – 45: 60 x Bolt of Linen Cloth

• 120 Linen Cloths

45 – 75: 30 x Heavy Linen Gloves

• 60 Bolts of Linen Cloth
• 30 Coarse Threads

Journeyman Tailoring: 75 – 125

75 – 100: 27 x Bolt of Woolen Cloth

• 81 Wool Cloth

100 – 110: 10 x Simple Kilt

• 40 Bolts of Linen Cloth
• 10 Fine Threads

110 – 125: 15 x Double-stitched Woolen Shoulders

• 45 Bolts of Woolen Cloth
• 30 Fine Threads

Expert Tailoring: 125 – 200

125 – 145: 27 x Bolt of Silk Cloth

• 108 Silk Cloths

145 – 160: 15 x Azure Silk Hood

• 30 Bolts of Silk Cloth
• 30 Blue Dye
• 15 Fine Threads

160 – 170: 10 x Silk Headband

• 30 Bolts of Silk Cloth
• 20 Fine Threads

170 – 175: 5 x Formal White Shirt

• 15 Bolts of Silk Cloth
• 10 Bleach
• 5 Fine Threads

175 – 185: 12 x Bolt of Mageweave

• 48 Mageweave Cloths

185 – 200: 15 x Crimson Silk Vest

• 60 Bolts of Silk Cloths
• 30 Red Dye
• 30 Fine Threads

Artisan Tailoring: 200 – 300

200 – 215: 15 x Crimson Silk Pantaloons (Level 39 PvP Twink Pants – Sell on AH)

• 60 Bolts of Silk Cloth
• 30 Red Dye
• 30 Silken Threads

215 – 220: 5 x Black Mageweave Leggings

• 10 Bolts of Mageweave
• 15 Silken Threads

220 – 230: 10 x Black Mageweave Gloves (Level 39 PvP Twink Gloves – Sell on AH)

• 20 Bolts of Mageweave
• 10 Heavy Silken Threads

230 – 250: 20 x Black Mageweave Headband

• 60 Bolts of Mageweave
• 40 Heavy Silken Threads

250 – 260: 10 x Bolt of Runecloth

• 40 Runecloth

260 – 280: 20 x Runecloth Belt

• 60 Bolts of Runecloth
• 20 Rune Threads

280 – 295: 15 x Runecloth Gloves

• 75 Bolts of Runecloth
• 30 Rune Threads

295 – 300: 5 x Runecloth Headband (Level 54 PvP Twink Helm – Sell on AH)

• 30 Bolts of Runecloth
• 10 Rune Thread

Master Tailoring: 300 – 350

300 – 325: 25 x Bolts of Netherweave

• 125 Netherweave Cloths

325 – 330: 5 x Netherweave Bag (Sell the bags on the AH)

• 20 Bolts of Netherweave
• 5 Rune Threads

330 – 335: 5 x Netherweave Pants

• 30 Bolts of Netherweave
• 5 Rune Threads

335 – 345: 10 x Netherweave Boots

• 60 Bolts of Netherweave

• 20 Knothide Leathers
• 10 Rune Threads

345 – 350: 5 x Netherweave Tunic (Get the pattern from either of these NPCs)

• 40 Bolts of Netherweave
• 10 Rune Threads

Grand Master Tailoring: 350 – 425

350 – 375: 25 x Bolt of Frostweave

• 125 Frostweave Cloths

375 – 380: 5 x Frostwoven Belt

• 15 Bolts of Frostweave
• 5 Eternium Threads

380 – 385: 5 x Frostwoven Boots

• 20 Bolts of Frostweave
• 5 Eternium Threads

385 – 395: 10 x Frostwoven Cowl

• 50 Bolts of Frostweave
• 10 Eternium Threads

395 – 400: 5 x Duskweave Belt

• 35 Bolts of Frostweave
• 5 Eternium Threads

400 – 405: 60 x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave (Save for crafting Frostweave Bags from 415-425.)

• 120 Bolts of Frostweave
• 120 Infinite Dusts

405 – 410: 5 x Duskweave Wristwraps

• 40 Bolts of Frostweave
• 5 Eternium Threads

410 – 415: 5 x Duskweave Gloves

• 45 Bolts of Frostweave
• 5 Eternium Threads

415 – 425: 10 x Frostweave Bag 5+ Skill per (Sell the bags on the AH)

• 60 Imbued bolts of Frostweave

• 20 Eternium Threads

Illustrious Grand Master Tailoring: 425 – 500

425 – 450: 28 x Bolt of Embersilk Cloth 2+ Skill per

• 140 Embersilk Cloths

450 – 455: 5 x Deathsilk Bracer

• 10 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

455 – 460: 5 x Deathsilk Boots

• 15 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

460 – 465: 5 x Deathsilk Leggings

• 15 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

465 – 470: 5 x Deathsilk Cowl

• 15 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

470 – 475: 5 x Spiritmend Belt

• 20 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

475 – 480: 5 x Spiritmend Boots

• 20 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 10 Eternium Threads

480 – 484: 4 x Spiritmend Leggings (Stop crafting at 484!)

• 16 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 8 Eternium Threads

484 – 494: 2 x Embersilk Bag

• 30 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 30 Hypnotic Dusts

494 – 500: 6 x Spiritmend Robe

• 36 Bolts of Embersilk Cloth
• 12 Eternium Threads

Zen Tailoring: 500 – 600

500 – 535: 90 x Bolt of Windwool Cloth +2 Skill per

• 450 Windwool Cloth

535 – 547: 4 x Windwool Shoulders +3 Skill per

• 16 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

547 – 556: 3 x Windwool Boots +3 Skill per

• 12 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

556 – 568: 3 x Windwool Pants +4 Skill per

• 15 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

568 – 576: 2 x Windwool Hood +4 Skill per

• 10 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

When you reach 575 you can purchase vendor recipes for the last 25 points. The Tailoring recipes are on a vendor in Vale of Eternal Blossoms;

• Esha the Loommaiden (Horde) in Shrine of Two Moons
• Raishen the Needle (Alliance) in Shrine of Seven Stars

Some of the patterns sold require Level 590 tailoring. Each pattern will set you back 1 Spirit of Harmony or 10 Motes of Harmony. Make what you want or can use the patterns range from 4 Bolts of Windwool to 8 bolts of Windwool to craft. I usually will craft Shoulders, Chest, Helm and Gloves to sell when it comes to PvP gear. Mainly for 2 reasons;

1. These slots historically sell the fastest
2. They serve another purpose now, Transmoging, these are the most visible pieces on your character so if players don’t buy them to cheat the LFD iLevel requirements and don’t buy them to PvP in they will buy them to Transmog. That may be justification for the first reason.

Below is the specific crafting path I took:

576 – 591: 5 x Contender’s Silk Amice +3 Skill per

• 20 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

591 – 595: 1 x Contender’s Silk Cowl +4 Skill per

• 10 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

595 – 600: 1 x Imperial Silk +5 Skill per

• 8 Bolts of Windwool Cloth

At this point you need to check out this post by Nev at AHaddict to find out which Mist of Pandaria faction to work on reputation with so you can get the epic patterns. Make sure you do your Imperial Silk cool down, EVERYDAY, whether you have the patterns to use them on or not yet. You can only make one Imperial Silk per day and they are soul bound.

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Low Population Realms - A Whole New World

If you’re a player on a low population realm, you’ve probably already noticed that making money isn’t as easy as other players make it out to be. You’ve tried your hand at flipping transmog items, craftable BoEs or even Mysterious Fortune Cards, and none of it has turned a noticable profit.

All of this is simply because on low population realms, different rules apply than on higher population realms., and sadly, what could make you ten thousands of gold a day on a high population realm, could turn into an endless relisting fee on your small realm.

I decided to write this for those of you who want to know how to overcome these issues, and still make money regardless of the population of your server. I have played on EU-Sarschield Legion for a number of years now, and the realm itself is the second least active realm out of all the English speaking EU realms. There are about 260 level 90 Alliance characters who are my primary market. I don’t claim to be an expert, and everything I type is based on what I’ve observed on my own realm. Regardless, I hope this article will help you in raking in some gold on your own server!

Differences Between a High Population Realm and a Low Population Realm

Why do these differences exist? The biggest reason is simple and obvious; there are less potential buyers for your product.

“What’s the big deal?” You might say, “that also means I’ll have less competition,” and while that’s definitely true, it also means that for some niche products your list of buyers is practically nill. Since Transmogging was introduced, I’ve seen maybe 10 people looking for Transmog items. Not quite the fat stacks of money you would’ve imagined reading most goldblogs in the last couple of months.

Another reason, that’s a little more subtle, is that low population realms typically do not attract new players.

People playing on one have probably been there for years. There will ofcourse be a few new players every once in a while, but the majority of them will be friends of current players.

The effect this has on the market is that it reduces the potential buyers of niche objects even more. There will be a higher percentage of players that already have the rare drop that you’re looking to sell, provided it drops in old content, of course.

Now obviously, you can still score big if you find a BoE mount or something like that, but it will take a lot more time to find a buyer, sometimes weeks or even months.

This leads me into my next topic, which is:

Effort

Making money on a small realm takes a lot of effort, and you might not even make as much as you’d like to. This is an unfortunate truth that you will have to learn to acccept. There are less people on your realm, which means there there is less money going around in your economy, and less of it will end up in your pocket because of it.

Another thing you’ll have to keep in mind is how many people will need a product on any given day.

Let’s take something like gems, an item that you know people will need everyday.

Now let’s say you’re on a high population realm, and everyday 50-100 people will need one or more gems, depending on realm size. That’s probably more than you can supply in a day anyway, so it’s not a very big deal if you miss out on some of those sales. Now imagine that instead of 50-100, there are only about 4 or 5 people looking to buy gems everyday, maybe less on a bad day, and suddenly it becomes a lot more important that you make sure you always have the lowest price for an item. It can potentially only take one undercut to prevent you from selling any of that type of item that day.

Making Money Using Professions

Alright, enough doom and gloom! Let’s focus on what you can do on a low population realm to make money.

The answer is actually quite simple: you’ll want to focus on selling items that everybody needs, like gems and enchanting materials. That’s why, in my opinion, the ore shuffle is once again the safest way to make money. Not only are you unlikely to ever lose money on it unless something incredibly weird happens to the price of ores, but the shuffle will only become more profitable as the expansion goes on, and more gem slots appear in gear.

Nevertheless, my advice is to have more on the auction house than gems and enchanting mats alone, and that’s why I’ll talk about every profession seperately, and what I feel their worth is, as well as my experience with them.

First off, let’s talk about gathering. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, you can make a lot of money with these professions. The fact that there’s less people also means that you will almost never run into a bot, and you will often find yourself without any competition for nodes. The best part is that it’s incredibly hard to run out of buyers for these items as they’re used in almost every profession.

As for the other professions, here’s a list, and what my experience with each is, and any advice I may have.

Alchemy

This is one of the professions that I’d say is vital to anyone that wants to make money on a small realm. As of me writing this, flasks are not yet profitable to make for me as a Transmutation master, but I have no doubt that that will improve as the price of Golden Lotus declines.

More importantly though, I have found that Trillium bars sell quite well. In fact, if the price of a stack of Ghost Iron Ore is less than the price of one Trillium Bar, you’re already making a profit.

Blacksmithing

I’d say Blacksmithing is very safe to skip over. Crafted PvP gear may have been able to be profitable in the first few weeks as everyone was desperately trying to increase their item level, but now that that initial rush has died down somewhat has become hard to get rid of.

Belt Buckles are needed by everyone, but not regularly enough for me to justify using this profession.

Enchanting

Another profession that you’ll need to get. Not only is it necessary for the shuffle, it also provides you with a Sha Crystal on a daily cooldown, which you can either sell raw, or if you have Enchanting on a character that you’re also doing dailies with, use them to create enchants that are reputation locked. This is once again a very slim market though, and I’d advise against it.

Engineering

The big thing about Engineering in this expansion is that they have two mounts to make. In my personal opinion, this is once again one of the things that can make you a lot of money on a higher population server. On a Low Population server though, I don’t think this one’s worth all the trouble you’d have to go through to find a buyer.

Inscription

Darkmoon decks, you’ve probably heard about them. Everyone’s been making a lot of money on these on the big servers, but right now, I have only sold one of these cards to a very desperate person on the last day of the previous Darkmoon Faire. It’s a bit of a gamble right now, but if this is a bubble, it’s about to burst any minute. However, I feel that the amount of potential profit to be made off of the Cards is worth the risk right now, but it’s important that you try to finish your decks before the next Faire ends, a Trinket will be easier to sell than a deck that turns into a Trinket a month later.

Glyphs are another story entirely. I had expected to make a lot of money on these, specifically on Monk glyphs. Unfortunately, this blew up in my face, and I don’t think I’ve sold more than five Glyphs in the last three weeks. This might be different per server though.

I’d say Inscription is worth using right now, and you can always fall back on the Shoulder Enchants if everything else doesn’t work.

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting is absolutely necessary if you plan to make any money as it is part of the shuffle. Pick this up ASAP.

You may have heard that you can make a lot of money selling the iLvL 450 jewelery, this may be true for larger servers, but I have found this to be untrue on my own server, and I’d advice to steer clear of these.

Leatherworking

I find Leatherworking to be largely not worth it. Just like Blacksmithing, it only creates one item enhancement. It’s safe to skip this one.

Tailoring

Tailoring can either be completely worth it, or completely useless to you, depending on wether or not you learn it on the character that you do your dailies with. The reason for this is that the pattern for Royal Satchel, the new 28 slot bag, is available only once you are revered with The August Celestials.

If you don’t have this profession on your main, I’d steer clear of it.

General Advice

A small market also means that it’s relatively easy to reset it if the price for an item drops to an amount you’re not happy with. For some items there simply won’t be any on the Auction House when you post yours. You can use this to your advantage, but remember to not go overboard on how you set your price. This also applies in the other direction, if a market is reset, someone might underprice an item when they list it, and you can pick up some cheap items with little effort.

Another thing that doesn’t just apply to small servers, but is a fantastic way to reduce your spending, is to find someone who’s willing to mine/herb for you. They may not be willing to deal with the Auction House, and you can offer them a guaranteed sale for whatever they gather. Just ask around in Trade for miners/herbalists looking to make some money, you never know how much money you could save. I currently have two people supplying me with ore, I give 60 gold a stack to one, and 50 gold a stack to the other.

Try to be as diverse in what you have to offer as possible, but sell your gems uncut. Jewelcrafters need them for their daily cooldown, and cut gems often sell for less money than the uncut version on my server.

In Closing

With these tips, I have no doubt in my mind that you can make money on your server as well, the most important part is to stay safe, and to not base your income around niche items that will not sell on small servers. So unless you have a buyer in advance, don’t risk gold on something that you might not be able to sell for a profit.

I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope it will benefit you in the goal that you’ve set for yourself, whether that’s ten thousand, or a million gold!

This Article Was a Guest Post Submitted By: Korlon of Sarschield Legion – EU

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Where To Farm For Cooking Meats In Mists of Pandaria?

Cooking Quests and The Tiller’s Union

The Introduction of the Tillers faction and all of their participating farmers whom each have their own Friendship levels of reputation has been an amazing source of income for many WoW players.  Both veteran and brand new players can take full advantage of the various ways to make gold in WoW offered with the introduction of the Tillers Union. 

The Tiller’s Union Daily Quests and the Cooking quests required to level your Cooking skill with the various “Ways” both require a huge amount of Vegetables, Meats, and Fish.  Many of these required meats, vegetables, and fish can be grown on your own farm plots in Halfhill or can be farmed or fished from the various wildlife within the Mists of Pandaria zones.

Be sure to check out Cold’s post on the shopping lists of a Tiller’s Union Daily Quest grinder.  There are a ton of food items that are required every day to complete all of the cooking and Tiller daily quests.

Farming For Cooking Materials

Vegetables

Vegetables can be grown on your own farm and get more profitable as you unlock more plots of farmable soil on your personal Halfhill farm.  Unfortunately you must be level 90 to start unlocking the extra plots, but your level 85s can get their 4 plot farm running with little trouble.

Fish

Fish can be obtained throughout their waterways, rivers, streams, and oceans of Pandaria.  The best way to obtain the proper fish required for the Cooking quests is to fish from within a Pool of the desired fish.  Fishing within pools takes only a level 1 skill in Fishing.

Meats

Farming the meats for cooking are the hardest, most time consuming, and often the most profitable of the cooking materials.  You must farm the cooking meats from the proper creatures of Pandaria.  Fortunately, Nev from Auction House Addict has compiled a new series on just where the best places are to farm the various Cooking required meats of Mists of Pandaria.

Nev’s Series on Farming Cooking Meats In MoP

1. Farming MoP Cooking Meats – All You Need To Know – This is the general wrap up on the series, but also includes some extra tips and tricks as well as reader added ideas.
2. Where To Farm Wildfowl Breast
3. Where To Farm Mushan Ribs
4. Where To Farm Raw Turtle Meat
5. Where To Farm Raw Crocolisk Belly
6. Where To Farm Raw Crab Meat
7. Where To Farm Raw Tiger Steak

All great posts.  Be sure to check them out for all of your Pandarian Meat Farming spots.

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

Today I present to you a guest post from KhasDylar.  This is an entry for the monthly Cold’s Gold Blogging Carnivals over at Cold’s Gold Factory.

This month, the monthly topic asks participants:

“What Are Some Things You Recommend Players Look Out For While Leveling A New Character In World of Warcraft?“

For creating a new character, the first thing one has to decide: why do I want that character? I want it to be a gatherer alt, a raiding toon, am I rerolling ’cause I’m now bored with my old main? Or just simply want one from that class-race combo too, just to have fun? The most important thing is to set this goal before even creating a new character. This is simply important because you need to know what you want, not just wander around blindly or you are just wasting your time. There are several more reasons why someone could roll a new toon, but I won’t list them all here.

Time is a crucial point while leveling. Depending on your goal, you want either level the fastest way you can (for example: if you want to raid with it) or keep a slow pace.
Let me make an example: two of my friends play WoW only 1-2 months every year, meaning they are not too well equipped with high end help (only me and another friend helps them). I always keep a toon somewhere around their level range to be able to play with them. To ensure that I don’t level faster than they, I simply don’t use Heirlooms. We are in the same guild, so the guild perk bonus is equal for us.

Many players tend to forget about their mains and it’s possibilities, when playing a new character – don’t be that guy! For a lvl85 character it’s not a big problem to send some 20-22 slot bags for the little one and trust me, it greatly helps! Of course, it helps the most for a gatherer alt, but every new toon is gratefull for some new equipment.
If you happen to level a gatherer alt, don’t make the same mistake as I did with mine: I tried to get up the gathering profs while leveling my toon. You’ll be bored to death for sure. A max level character has much more traveling options (use of flying mounts for example) than a lower level one and in most regions he doesn’t have to fear from death, he can go whereever he wants – and the feeling when you AoE a dozen mobs who are guarding your precious mineral node, now that’s priceless!

Another way to use your mains resources are of course the Heirlooms. But hey! Watch where you buy them! Don’t just use the Justice vendors, there is still the Argent Tournament quest hub, where you can collect Crusader’s Seals, these can be used to buy Heirlooms as well. If you have some spare Crusader’s Seal with you from the good old WotLK days, it’s a good time to spend them. Another way to utilise them are the BoE pets: with the incoming Pet Battle System in Mists, their prices will elevate a bit – but that’s another topic.

Once you reach the max level, you stand there with a bunch of ilvl 318-333 stuff across all the slots and you can barely enter a Tier 1 Heroic instance with that. Don’t be afraid to spend some Justice and Valor Points on BoE high end epics: up from ilvl 365 ones ’til 397 Valor BoEs, you can almost equip your fresh toon in all of the slots with shiny purples. With that you can already enter Looking for Raid, where you can shower in the ilvl 384-390 stuff. This is not only important for wannabe raiding toons, but you can level faster with better gear in the upcoming Mists expansion, which is soon upon us!

Some words about the professions and their leveling. As I said above, it’s a good practice to first hit lvl85 (or similar high level) before raising a gathering profession. Of course it’s not forbidden to pick a flower or mine a node once in a while during the levelup, but it’s not worth spending too much time on it. This is still true nowdays, when the gathering also gives experience.
As to every rule, there are exceptions to this one also, Skinning is a good example. If you plan to level with questing, which can be very fun and effective in Cataclysm, you are killing lots of monsters anyway, it would be foolish to leave their pelts rot in the wastes – rather skin them and honor their noble sacrifice.
Enchanting being another exception as you’ll be getting tons of trash greens and blues, which you can’t use anyway. Don’t vendor, rather disenchant them. If you want to level Enchanting later, it will be either expensive or a real pain in the a$$.

So, to summarize my advices: the key point in leveling a new character is time management, because we all want to have fun (be it raiding or just fooling around in Azeroth) and why should we delay ourselves in that?
____________________________________

Best regards!
“KhasDylar“

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

After the transmogrification hype died down a bit, I strolled over to my local auction house on the Horde side. I was doing my normal daily scan of items to flip, when I came across the Shields up for bid/buyout. My mouth almost dropped when I saw a Skullflame Shield up for 25,000 gold! I remember selling this same shield before Cata for maybe 5000 gold at the most. I went to check the rest of the shields and saw low level shields going for slightly more than what their stats and levels would otherwise dictate. I realized that the transmog die hards viewed shields as a major transmog piece of gear due to their instant transformation from mehville to coolsville. I went to my own bank on my horde toon and realized I had a large amount of shields (both twink and non-twink) that might net me some profit. Excitedly, I went to the Undermine Journal and started looking up the prices on each shield for my realm and faction. I had collected around 50 shields from dungeons, auction house deals, etc. I found that I had a pretty nice collection that I could put up on the auction house for transmog purposes. I put up maybe 10 of my 50 shields to see if I could get any bites. I logged off for the night.
The next day after breakfast, I leisurely logged on to my horde to do his daily fishing/cooking quests when I noticed I had mail. I checked my mail and to my delight, I had sold 9 of the 10 shields I put up in the auction house the night before. I netted around 5000 gold on these shields! I proceeded to put up 5 more shields and within two days, I sold all 6 of the shields. I have been doing this for around two months and would like to share my own personal Top 5 Shields for transmog to sell on the auction house. All 5 of these shields are based on my personal preference and profit as well. Please keep in mind that these prices are tentative based on each realm’s supply and demand.

Skullflame Shield – 

Probably one of if not the best looking shield in the game as of now. This skull spews fire from around it making it very easy to identify on any toon’s back or arm. This shield can command anywhere from 20k-50k on the auction house. This shield is a rare drop from 55-61 level mobs. Although, you can farm Mana-Tombs Heroic for a similar shield: The Fel Barrier which has around a 25-30% drop rate (Nexus Prince Shaffar can drop this shield), interest in the Skullflame shield is still high at the auction house.

Zom’s Crackling Bulwark –

This is another rare and cool looking shield with a moving circular motion inside the shield. This shield has been sold on  my realm for close to 15k. It can drop from any level 75-80 mob. There is an alternative to this shield: Stormshield Renewal which is a 12-15% drop from The Black Stalker in the Underbog Heroic dungeon.  Once again, farming is something most don’t enjoy doing, so they will go to the auction house and spend the gold instead.

Crystal Pulse Shield- 

A very nice and world drop that has been peaking on my server’s auction house lately and has a unique look. This shield sold for 5k. It can drop from almost any level 60-70 mob. This shield has a nice pulsating light emitting from the middle of it.

Don Gonzales’s Shiny Shield:

A very nice world drop shield with a unique symbol and shape to it. This shield has gone for 3k-4k on my realm. It can drop from almost any Cataclysm mob. The shield has also been known to be found in silken treasure chests as well.

Ward of the Red Widow – 

Last but most definitely not least is a rare drop from Beth’tilac (The Red Widow) boss in Firelands comes a nice shield which as commanded around 15k-20k gold on my realm. This shield is a very unique one with a wicked design. The drop rate has been rumored to be around 1%.

Honorable Mentions:

Troll Protector – A very simple wooden shield with a cool design on it.
Aegis of Stormwind – A nice light blue shield which looks like Alliance should wield it.
Garrett Family Crest – A nice red shield that might look better for a Horde toon.
Mountainside Buckler – A nice triangle shaped shield which is glimmering and shiny.
The Green Tower – A simple rectangular shaped shield that is…you guessed it..green.

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

Hello Young Goblins!

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

This gold making blog post is being written as an entry into the March WoW Gold Blogging Carnival over at Cold’s Gold Factory.  Each month at Cold’s Gold Factory, a variety of WoW gold bloggers contribute articles all written on a specific topic chosen by the gold blogging carnivals host.  Be sure head over and check out all of the other great entries in this month’s carnival.  This month’s carnival topic asks us:

Using your knowledge that you have gained from auction house experience:  If you were starting over as a gold maker, what is one thing you would do differently than the first time, and why?

How Would I Change The Ways I Made Gold In WoW?

The biggest and most obvious change that I would make is that I would have started using auction house add-ons much much earlier. 

Back when I first started blogging, I often would talk about how I used hardly any add-ons at all.  The main reason I was so adamant against using auction house add-ons was because I wanted to feel like I had a sense of accomplishing the gold making aspects of World of Warcraft completely on my own.  I did not need add-ons to do it for me.  I was doing all of the math, the cross references, the comparisons, the spreadsheets, and every single thing that an add-on does for you.  I have a brain and could think on my own.  I didn’t need some stupid add-on to tell me what to do.

I also felt that a heavy dependance on auction house add-ons was a crutch that players leaned on too heavily.  By not using add-ons, I was unhampered on patch days, when others were stuck scrambling to find work arounds for their add-ons.  While those players were lost, I was still able to plug away on my auction house routine.

My other fear was that a reliance on add-ons would lead to a weaker understanding of the auction house markets.  I still believe that to this day, but since I made it to the Wrath gold cap without any add-ons I had a pretty good understanding of how all of the markets rise & fall and interact with each other.  I still don’t think a player should jump right into ways to make gold on the auction house by using add-ons.  You should learn how the markets interact and how the ebb and flow prior to installing the auction house add-ons. 

Today I wish I would have started using the basic WoW auction house add-ons much earlier.  Not immediately, but once I had a good understanding of how the WoW auction house and WoW gold making systems worked together.  Auctioneer was a great tool that helped save me a lot of time once I finally started using it.  Then when I finally made the switch to the Auctionator / TradeSkillMaster combination I really started to save a ton of time.  Less time in the auction house, meant more time for actually playing the rest of the game.  Add-ons can decrease your time relisting, posting, crafting, researching, purchasing, comparing, farming, and barking. 

So don’t be afraid of using add-ons to help you make gold in WoW.  I do recommend getting a basic understanding of the auction house before installing auction house add-ons.  If you do, your overall gold making process will flow more smoothly, you will understand what the add-on is actually doing, and you will be able to go back to the old fashioned approach when your add-ons get broken after patches.

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy

Making Gold In WoW Isn’t As Hard As You Think

Anyone can make gold in WoW.  Whether your goal is to reach the 1 million single player gold cap or just to make enough gold in WoW to pay for your in-game WoW expenses, you can do it.  With a little studying, practice, and experimentation, you can be rivaling the best gold makers in no time.  For a little goblin, the World of Warcraft auction house can be a scary and intimidating place.  The big question is where do you start?  What market should you get into?

Make Gold In WoW – Where To Start?

There are a ton of markets and niches to choose from when making gold in the World of Warcraft acution house.  There are a ton of craftable items you could make.  There are items to buy for cheap and sell for a higher price.  There are vendor recipes to buy and flip for more gold.  Items you loot can be sold for more on the auction house than an npc vendor would pay you.  It’s all confusing for a new player or a new auctioneer (little goblin).  Here is my best advice I can give to anyone looking to make gold in WoW and get started in their first auction house markets.

Start With What You Already Know

Yes, that’s right.  Start with what you already know.  What type of player are you?  Each individual player has more knowledge in some areas than other areas of the game.  This individual learning is derived from what types of activities you have the most experience from within the game of WoW. 

When I first started in the auction house, I had 1 main character, my Rogue Skinning Leatherworker.  I liked to quest and was questing all over Azeroth.  How did this help me?  One of my very first niche markets I entered (back in Vanilla WoW) was the “Quest Required Items” market.  My love of questing had compiled me a nice long list of items that I found were needed for specific quests or subquests (remember Dire Maul-North Tribute Runs?) in the game.  Because of all of the questing I had done, my personal experiences led me to sell items that I too at one point had to craft myself or purchase to complete those quests.  Some of those items I sold within the “Quest Required Items” market were:

• Deadly Blunderbuss (Ashenvale Quest)
• Mithril Casing (Amy-E Ape Escort)
• Thorium Widgets (Frost Trap In DM-N)
• Darkmoon Faire Turn In Items (Old Darkmoon Faire)
• Weapons and Armor Specialty Quests (Blacksmithing Specs)
• Advanced Target Dummy (Centaur Quest Chain)

I posted what I knew about to get me started making gold in WoW.  As I learned more, I expanded my markets. I didn’t sell those weapons and armor required for the Blacksmithing specialty quest chains, until I had leveled my Blacksmith. 

Ideas For You To Make Gold In New Markets

If you PvP you understand what PvP players use more than a non-PvP player.  If you are a tank, you have a better understanding of what gems amd enchants a tank would use.  If you are a Twinker, then you understand twink gear, twink enchants, and twink buff items better than most.  If you are into completing armor sets for Transmogrification, then you understand the market better than any non-moggers. 

Maybe you are a rogue.  If so, you know how hard it can be to find good daggers while leveling.  I was on a constant look out for nice +agi leveling daggers to flip for a nice profit.  I learned that strictly from being a dagger using rogue myself. 

So think about what you do and what you already know and buy for your own characters.  Something within your current knowledge is the best plae to start looking to make gold in WoW.  Once you have mastered a few of those markets, then you can start to look into newer markets for even more ways to make gold.

Anyone else have any good examples of first markets they entered because they already knew the ins and outs from regular in game experience?

Brought To You By Goldgrub's Goblin Academy